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The hunt and death of Baasku the Immortal at the hands of Tessen and Junan

WARNING: Contains strong violence and gore.

"The $6.5 Million Man"

Unknown location

While the war is slowly coming to an end and the people rejoice across the land, in many places, people still live in fear as there is one problem that hasn't had a solution yet. The Baasku still lives and has continued to kill without remorse, even going so far as to attack Kirigakure camps that were posted in these parts. One would think that someone of his size wouldn't be difficult to miss, but its been proven wrong time and again. He is quite the elusive figure despite his size.

His attacks come at any time, be it morning, noon, or night, but there's something about the morning and night that draws his attention. There's no telling what it is, perhaps the idea of these times being ripe for the picking or the sense of defenselessness that permeates about the small settlements. Whatever it is, it seems he's found himself at one of these places in the dark morning hours in the forests of Konoha.

His stride is heavy as he walks inside, animals beginning to grow upset at his presence. The chickens run around in their coops with nowhere to go so they cluck incessantly and flap their wings, alerting those who may be nearby of the one who has walked into the village. Without much discrimination, he raised his blade into the air and brought it down upon the coop, easily slicing many chickens in half while the others began to run or fly off. When a villager left his home with a lantern, casting an eerie light upon the Baasku, his attention was immediately turned to the man who he proceeded to attack with his blade.

Tessen had been following the tales of destruction he had heard in passing. Each camp he investigated seemed to be the work of one man. The only one in his mind it could be was the one he started hunting almost a year ago with Kaede, under the orders of the late Lord Rain. This had to be Baasku. While he was cutting through the woods trying to figure out where the next attack might fall, and dodge the few remaining security passes of Kirigakure forces, he heard a lot of noise. Too much for this early in the morning.

He let out a slow and calm breath as he turned hit attention to that direction. This was not going to be easy if it was Baasku, and it would be irritating to no end if it wasn't. His hand genstured to the hired help for this strike. For the price he was being paid he hoped Junan's claim of being immortal wasn't a bluff now. "We should check it out quietly if possible. Should it be Baasku we engage when the moment is right, and if it isn't we ignore it. Not our war, not our problem."

With that Tessen fell silent and let his eyes close slowly. When they opened again his Sharingan was active. Vermilion eyes the color of blood peered at the world around him as it past him by at high speed. He wouldn't let Baasku escape again.

Following Tessen silently, the enormous shinobi Junan walks behind him. At the Uchiha's words, the large man gives a nod. "Very well. Let's see if our friend has come out to play then," he says with a sly smirk. The tales of the man they are hunting from the Bingo Book and stories he has heard in the journey are quite intriguing. A man that makes even his height look small. This will definitely not be a fight that he can retain this normal form.

Glancing to Tessen as he activates Sharingan, Junan falls silent once more and looks ahead. When his partner in this can see things so clearly, he might as well simply wait for the signal to kill.

A chicken was captured in the air as it flew within his view and was crushed in his hand, neck snapped and tossed to the ground before he went on to attack the home of the man who'd seen him. With a swift cut across the home, the upper half was severed from the lower half, along with the man inside. The building would then be promptly kicked over to reveal those that remained. A wife and their young son.

The mother took her son up in her arms and tried to make an escape, but she was kicked back inside, knocking the wind out of her and sending her son flying out of her arms. She called out to him to run and he hesitated, finding it difficult to leave his mother behind. What he would be left with was a permanent scar upon his mind as the color red splashed across his face seeing her severed by the blade of this attacker. His eyes dilated and before he knew it, he was climbing over the rubble and outside where the rest of the village was fleeing, tears flowing down his cheeks in an endless river. In an attempt to strike the child down, Baasku raised his blade and brought it down, narrowly missing him, but severing someone else in the process. His aggressiong was turned on the ground where he struck it with his blade and raised the earth, throwing the villagers into the air where some would be smacked down in a volley, hitting the earth with broken bones.

Swinging his blade wildly at the rest of the settlement, people were falling to his blade left and right and the only thing he had to show for it was a sick grin across his marred face.

Tessen neared the site of destruction and slowed. There was no point in having the element of surprise in this conflict if you wasted it charging in head long towards a man weilding a blade twice your size as effortlessly as you would swing a stick. The carnage didn't bother him now. The war saw fit to remove any squimishness he might have held in him long ago. This man was a butcher though, and if Kaede were here then this man would suffer. It was a good thing for all now that Kaede was dead and gone so that atleast this attrocity would go without his eyes glimpsing it.

Again, Tessen had to take a deep breath to slow and calm himself. His chakra levels rising up within him slowly, so he hoped that they would not be noticed immediately. Something told him that he would need to act carefully, because this man showed no signs of slowing down soon.

His eyes never left Baasku as he motioned to Junan to prepair himself for this as well. They would be moving out in the chaos to attack him as soon as both were ready.

Hearing the screams of villagers being slaughtered, Junan lifts an eyebrow faintly. Most shinobi don't bother with attacks like this. It definitely fits the MO of their target. Still, the giant shinobi follows Tessen silently and waits for the signal from Tessen. Best not to fly in blindly after this typoe of opponent…

As Tessen gives the word to prepare, Junan gives a nod and brings his hands into a seal. His muscles begin to tense, veins bulging out as his body literally seems to be begin to grow in muscle. He'll have to at least bring himself a bit more up to this man's size to be able to take him on.

Baasku continued his rampage in the village, his blade coming down on anything that moved and was in his line of sight. What disadvantage came from the scaring he sustained on his face is that he had a bit of a blindspot on his right side and his eye muscle was somewhat weak and couldn't be controlled all that well. He displayed this by seemingly having a subtle lack of care for anything running past him at his right as his blade was mostly focused to his left or forward. If he felt someone was running in his blindspot, he'd swing madly with disregard of whether or not he hit or missed.

Seeing as he wasn't a shinobi, he wasn't able to detect any chakra in the area, but experience has given him the hint that something was near. Where it was, he didn't know, but nothing that couldn't be solved with more swings of his blade. Many trees in the area were cut down in a fell swoop, each tilting and collapsing either in the settlement or colliding with other trees. Something was around here and he was going to find it.

Tessen let out the softest sigh he could as his chakra levels settled into place. If Junan could hold up his end then one focusing should be enough to get this over with. His red eyes glared at Baasku as he began to try and form a link with the man's mind. He needed to sew the link deep so that it would despite the stress. Normally, he would hide it under a barrage of attacks to distract the enemy, but for now it seemed that Baasku was distracted enough trying to find something or someone in the village.

In either case Tessen doubted that their pressence would be allowed unhindered much longer. With a motion of his hand he gave Junan the signal to go for it. Hopefully, this immortal would survive where Baasku would fall. Tessen really didn't feel like wasting even more money these days to hire someone else to come and help him try again to kill this man.

Muscles continuing to grow, Junan actually grows in height as his transformations goes further. His eyes watch the target carefully, that blind spot on the right side taken into note. Of course, as trees fall, he also looks to that giant blade. He'll have to rid the situation of that.

Upon being given the signal to move ahead, the rippling giant suddenly moves at a speed one would only expect of a Body Flicker. Coming up on Baasku's right side, the giant shinobi actually has to leap up for once in his life to drive his knee up to Baasku's chin. Not stopping even for a moment, he quickly spins to send a powerful roundhouse directly at the shoulder of the arm that supports his cleaver.

Whatever link was being established, Baasku certainly wouldn't feel it. He had one motive and one motive only. That was to kill anything and everything. With a mind as wild as his, it may not be so easy to establish a link right off hand, but it can be done. While he was swinging around at nothing but a destroyed village, catching the last of any stragglers he'd move for a final swing only to find his head knocked in another direction. His head lifted into the air and he stumbled back to a degree, thrown off balance by the unexpected strike. The follow up attack connects, but the cleaver doesn't drop. Instead Baasku grabs Junan's leg and proceeds to slam him to the ground soon after the roundhouse was finished. He didn't know who this guy was, but it didn't matter. He now had someone new to kill. His arm was weakened by the strike to his shoulder, but strong enough still that he could bring severe damage to Junan as his cleaver is thrust from the air to cut him clean in half on the ground.

Tessen didn't even bat an eye as Baasku stood there seemingly unharmed by Junan's strikes. He had warned the man of what he knew of Baasku. With a slow sigh as the link took hold Tessen began to move through a series of seals. One hand outstreatched as small orbs of lightning began to appear in the open palm before they fired at Baasku's form. Should they hit, he hoped they would shock the man enough to jar him and give Junan a chance to free himself from the clutches of the butcher.

As the last orb leaves his hand Tessen blurs through another series of seals. This time his body crackled with lightning before it errupted skyward in a blinding pillar of light. The intensity enough to make someone think you were burning their retnas out. A handy genjutsu to have. If Baasku couldn't figure it out and defend himself properly, then he would be vunerable to Junan's assaults for a few moments. Provided Junan survived long enough to capitalize.

As he is grabbed and slammed on the ground, Junan braces himself and uses the momentum to roll himself out of the way of the cleaver to the right. Chuckling a bit, the large shinobi rolls behind Baasku as he swings the cleaver and pops up behind him. With as much strength as he can muster, he leaps into a powerful thrust kick directly at the back of Baasku's elbow, intending to break it with the forward momentum and render the arm useless.

The cleaver is raised with ease, dust and earth falling from the blade as it is prepared as another round. Baasku begins to turn around, but is met with lightning that surges through his form, though it is shaken off easily. He tried to find the source and once he did, he was met with a flash of light that he couldn't take. His eyes shut quickly and his elbow suffers a blow that sends a shock up his arm. It paralyzes his arm for the moment, though the blade never leaves his hand. This cleaver is something he would never release, even under the worst of conditions. It is the weapon that is partnered with his reputation, after all and is a very faithful blade.

Blinded, he staggers around, unable to see, but puts a great deal of effort in trying to locate Junan, roars of anger leaving his throat while he does so.

Tessen sighed at how easy this had seemed so far. Lord Rain might have had too much faith in this man if this was all he amounted to. Junan's strikes all landed with ease, and his own were as effective as if fighting a giant child. Still, there was no time to heistate and no time to wonder. This man would die, and he would do it soon.

With the move of a hand a bundle of seals appared in Tessen's hand. He spoke coldly and flatly as he let them fly towards Baasku. "Don't touch those seals Junan. They are nasty business." The seals were designed to cause painful muscle spasms as they voraciously fed on chakra within the host. Once they had their fill, they used the stored chakra to detonate and explode while plastering the victim's body. Few picked themselves up from it.

As his opponent is weakened but not broken, Junan narrows his uses and takes a couple steps back. This guy is definitely not a joke. Such a creature should not exist… Yet that is likely what was thought of him in the Land of Bears centuries ago when he turned himself immortal. This is almost like a fighting a distorted image of himself.

No time for thinking about all that. Baasku's got to die. As the seals fly toward Baasku from the front, Junan leaps up from behind, flying in powerful roundhouse to attempt to kick the one man he has met that is larger than himself in the back of the head with enough force to at least attempt to knock him toward the flying seals.

The brute still didn't know he was suffering from genjutsu, but it wasn't enough to stop him. The attacks may be connecting, but he has yet to go down. With will alone, he attempted to break his arm free of the stun it was in. He struggled, his fingers twitching as he tried to get his arm to work in his favor, but to no avail. With his vision recovered, he looked over his shoulder as Junan attempted a roundhouse on him and instead drove his foot straight toward him in a powerful thrust kick to send him flying. The seals, though they'd connect did nothing against his building rage. Though they fed and exploded, the damage he experienced was nothing he hadn't met with before.

Skin may have burned, some chunks blasted off and burning while they hit the ground, exposing more of his frame to the elements. With the pain that came from it, the link was broken and added to the power of the swing of his blade, aimed straight for Tessen.

Tessen looked to Baasku. Seemed that this one here was going to be a bit tougher to kill than initially thought. Not many would take so many blows and still stay standing. Tessen had to think quickly as Baasku came at him. He learned from Kaede that barriers were all but useless, so it was speed to his end this day. With a low sigh he began to crackled red as if a lightning crash streaked past Baasku to put some distance between them.

With a groan he ran down a list of techniques he knew to try and help out further. Re-establishing the link was a top priority. Next would have to be attempting to lock this man down and keeping him down.

Reaching out with his chakra he again tried to grab a hold of Baasku's mind. He needed to remember how he did it the last time. To help hide his intentions he made a few short seals and charged the air around Baasku with static electricity to shock him. It wasn't powerful, but it could certainly be annoying.

Countered with a powerful kick from Baasku that hits his chest directly, Junan is sent flying back into a small house, crashing straight through the outside wall and landing on someone's living room couch, which instantly breaks under the impact.

"Not bad," the giant shinobi says as he picks himself up off the broken couch. A normal man would have several broken bones right about now, but Junan's body is definitely not as soft as most men's. The source of his immortality hardens his body and muscles like iron, though there is definitely a large bruise under his clothes right about now. "I haven't had a challenge like this in centuries." With that, he vanishes with insane speed, reappearing at Baasku's side as Tessen prepares his attack. He drives his foot at the man's shoulder that supports the cleaver once more. If he can manage to disable that arm from slinging that blade around, the advantage will be theirs.

With Tessen disappearing in a crackle of lightning, that left Junan to be the focus of his attacks. With him returning for more, Baasku braced himself for the attack. This guy really wanted to take out his shoulder. Only this time, he was more prepared for the attacks and kept his shoulder out of Junan's way for now. He wasn't going to let his arm go down that easily.

Junan would instead get a taste of his fist as he spun his cleaver around to manage striking him with his hand. Unfortunately, his cleaver acted as a conductor and took the static shocks that came for him, traveling up the blade and shocking his hand. Needless to say, this did annoy him, but the blade remained, though the shocks did seem to make him lose control of his grip to a small degree. This might be the key to having him release the blade.

The momentary lapse in grip might escape anoter man's eyes, but Tessen's Sharingan. Raw power couldn't do it, and pain alone wouldn't work, but for now…his electricity might. This was a risky gamble to continue to assault him head on time and again and draw attention, but it was for both of their safety. One solid swing with that sword and Tessen would be dead.

Tessen groaned as he focused a large amount of chakra through his body. The seals passed in an instant. Lightning began to arc between his moving hands. Only a few sparks at first but he continued to pump the chakra as it turned into streaks arcing back and forth trying to break free of his control. He condensed them down into a ball. It grew in seconds from the size of a childs bounce ball until it was larger than a soccer ball. Once it was ready he gave it a push right towards Baasku. His hand held in a readied seal. If Baasku dodged his lightning orb then he would merely detonate it and send arcs of powerful electricity fraying everywhere. Anyone hit by even a stray bold would lose muscle control and collapse for a few moments until the spasms stopped.

Taking the brunt of the punch, Junan staggers back a bit, but he is not in the air this time, so he is able to stay in one place. Instead, as Baaksu is being shocked, the immortal is doing something he hasn't done in quite a while, using a kunai that he drew while he was being punched. With all the speed and force he can muster, he drives the kunai forward pointed directly at Baasku's left eye, attempting to finish the process of blinding him as Tessen tries to weaken his muscles further.

Baasku could still register light, at least, so when the area lit up from the lightning that Tessen was generating, he turned in its direction and promptly ducked out of the way to avoid the orb that crackled with electricity. What he didn't know was that the orb was capable of remote detonation and so, when it exploded, a few arcs of lightning struck him and his body seized up, though he tried his hardest to fight against being stuned. His muscles bulged and veins rose to this skin, showing how much effort he was placing into this evasive tactic. As a result, the blood from the wounds he sustained from the prior explosions began to rise up and exit his wounds with increased frequency. This aided in weakening him with nothing to distribute oxygen through his large body.

Unable to detect where Junan was at the time of the shock, the surprise in the form of a kunai buried into his eye brought out a cacaphony in Baasku as it drove deep into his socket. Naturally, with sight reduced in his left eye, more strain was placed on the right which was beginning to fade in and out as it took the shock. His body gave in to all the excess sensory information surging through his body, causing him to open his hand and drop his blade to the ground in a solid thud as the weight was enough to leave an impression in the earth below.

Tessen wasted no time as he looked to Baasku. He knew without a doubt his chakra levels were not going to hold out forever and he needed to start conserving them now. He drew his own twin katana's with practiced hands. A small amount of chakra focused into his body as he vanished. He would appear past Baasku as one of his blades meant to pass through the man's rib cage on his trip. As he stopped with his back to the man his chakra moved and flickered again to use the other sword to open a mirrored gash on the other side. If his blades sunk deep enough on their cuts it would be fatal. Not immediately so, but lungs filling with blood was never pleasent and still more than this kind of butcher deserved.

As the giant takes the blade deep in his eye socket, Junan grins and steps over to keep his feet out of the way of the falling blade. There are two choices here, try to get the blade away from Baasku or try to get Baasku away from the blade… Metal seems easier to move. Turning a quick flipover, the giant shinobi grabs the hilt of the blade, using his extreme strength and the momentum of the flip to send the cleaver flying far away and out of Baasku's reach. At the same time, his feet kick up through the flip to try to kick the taller giant under the chin as Tessen slices him.

Considering the damage Baasku received in the past, cutting open his flesh to expose weakly healed areas may be an easier feat than thought possible. With the blades that entered into his back on either side, he'd be punctured, still seizing from the lightning that froze his system up while also trying to maintain sight that was still fading on him. Naturally, his attempt to reach for the blade was in vain and so as it was tossed aside, he watched it fly away and out of his reach, now unable to retrieve.

Still, he had some strength left in him and was strong enough without the blade. Kicked in the face, he was turned aside, though he whipped back to return the favor with a punch with all his strength in it, wanting to crush Junan into the ground for sendng his cleaver out of his reach.

Tessen stood his ground as he looked to Baasku. This man really wouldn't die. He had electrocuted him several times, sliced the meat of his ribs, and blown chunks off of his body, but the man wouldn't go down. He could only immagine the damage of Junan's punches. What the ever loving Hell made this guy tick?!

Sheathing his blades, Tessen drew two handfuls of kunai knives. He began to hurl them and watch their arcs with his sharingan. At the right moments he would loose another to reangle the blade. He was aiming for tender areas and joints. If he couldn't kill the man easily, he could hope to slow him down with pain and weak joints. A part of him wondered how much longer he could fight, or how much longer Junan could hold out from recieving the blows of this behemoth.

Feeling Baasku's punch connect with his chest and crack some ribs, Junan is sent flying back toward a tree. He turns his feet toward the tree, bending his knees as he stands on the trunk for a moment. "Kid, I really don't think there's a way for both of us to make it out of this /and/ kill this bastard," he says with a chuckle. "I've personally lived for a few centuries. Perhaps it's time I got some rest… The way only sure to get rid of this guy is going to be to take off his head, and that's going to take a lot of power."

His body was recovering from seizing up at the lightning, enabling him to move, though his sight was more or less diminished. His movements have grown more sluggish over time, muscles feeling tenderized from constant shock that left them weak to the command of his own mind. Not to mention balancing between the pain in his eye and the rest of his body now filtering in. At this point, he's an easy target to hit more so than earlier in the battle.

Tessen looked to Junan and smirked. "I don't plan on dying, but I know I can't rip his head off. Go for it and I will back you up from a distance. No sense in you getting killed on your way to do the job. Besides…I need that ugly mug to collect the bouty!"

Falling back Tessen made a few seals and scickle blades of wind formed before launching out Baasku's massive frame. The were aimed for the meat around his shoulders. Cutting the muscle even slightly would help Junan out in removing his head. I also served to keep the beast wounded and distracted from attacking. This would have to be it. If Junan got the head off it was all over…the bounty and reputation were theirs.

"His body would be rather heavy to carry back," Junan says with a smirk. Allowing Tessen to start attacking without him, he moves his hands up into a seal. He lets out a massive roar as chakra surges through his muscles, veins bulging even larger as his heart beats faster and faster. The tree trunk begins to break underneath him as his power rages.

"Time to die," he says before kicking off the tree, which breaks in half against his thrust as he flies toward Baasku. Using the extreme momentum of his flight and the strength of his enlarged muscles, he reaches to grab the taller giant's head, wrapping his arms around his head and squeezing tight as his body twists in an attempt to twist and rip his head off violently.

The blades cut with precision into the Baasku's skin and though he didn't respond to it, it didn't mean that he wasn't affected by it. He was just too busy being overloaded with sensory information. This should loosen him up nicely enough to have his head separated from his body. Of course, in response, a wild swing was made for Tessen. He may not have been able to see, but he had some kind of deadly precision in locating him. Possibly from suffering with partial blindness, he was able to make up for that with slightly enhanced senses…or maybe it was a luck shot. At any rate, none of them were getting out of here without pain being induced.

Upon Junan clinging to his head, he leaned forward from the momentum of his flight and tried to reach up to remove him, but instead suffered a head twist that cracked his neck, effectively cutting off him from the rest of his body. He was more or less dead, though there was the problem of nerves firing off…

Despite all the thrashing of uncontrolled limbs, even those that were paralyzed this only helped in having his head twisted off and removed from his body, leaving a gaping hole where his neck was connected. The spine didn't follow, but rather split off and left only pieces of it on the head as the body collapsed to the ground, twitching.

As the arm flew at him Tessen wrapped himself in winds to try and buffet the punch away, but his chakra was too low at the moment to creat sufficient coverage and barely softened the blow. His body was sent back several feet skidding before he pushed himself into a back tuck that landed him back on his feet. A hand went to his ribs. A few were cracked and one was broken, but it was a small price to pay.

His blood red eyes looked to Junan. "Seems this little excursion went off better than we had planned. Both of us still alive, and his head intact. It should be a quick matter of collecting the bounty. This was rather profitable, and I think I should keep you in mind for future endevors."

Holding the head of Baasku up, Junan looks down at it with a smirk before looking up to Tessen. "Yes. The world is much more balanced with this one gone," the giant shinobi says with a nod before tossing the head over to land beside the Uchiha. "Glad to be of service. I'm sure I'll fine some use for the money. Maybe a new condo in San Sara… See ya around, kid." With that, he vanishes.